Actor/authorbenkaya

  Something interesting happened while the USS Gerald Ford was recently docked in the Turkish port of Antalya. U.S. Ambassador to Turkiye, Jeff Flake, invited Selcuk Bayraktar to join him on board. Who is Selcuk Bayraktar? I would say he is the Elon Musk of Turkiye. Selcuk Bayraktar’s drones are well known throughout the world. Bayraktar TB2s have been sold to 31 nations. They are known for their stability, reliability, and accuracy. TB2s have rewritten conventional war strategy for the 21st century. After graduating with a major in aeronautical engineering in Turkiye, Selcuk Bayraktar completed his master's  at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and his PhD at MIT in Boston. He then returned to Turkiye to build military drones. Overcoming many roadblocks, he and his brother, Haluk Bayraktar, formed Baykar Technology and their company has become the number one drone technology company in the world. Their father, who has passed away, was a mechanical engineer himself and the mai...

  In Cyprus, in the village of Pile, Turkiye willingly gave up a section of land for the peaceful co-existence of the two ethnic groups living there. (Pile in Turkish, Pyla in Greek), is located in the Larnaca District of Cyprus. It is one of only four villages within the United Nations Buffer Zone, the other three being Athienou, Troulloi and Deneia. Pile is located in the eastern part of the island, adjacent to the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia . In Pile there are three churches for the Cypriot Greeks and a mosque for the ethnic Cypriot Turks. The Turks have their own Muhtar, and the Cypriot Greeks have their own leader. These two ethnic groups have lived together peacefully for well over fifty years. However, a problem has arisen. Cypriot Greeks recently built their own road to go to the Greek side of Cyprus. The British are allowing them to travel without any issues. The Cypriot Turks also want to freely go to the Turkish side of Cyprus, but the Britis...

The U.S. has tried everything to control Turkiye including the July 15, 2016, failed coup, supporting the PKK in Iraq and YPG in Syria, supporting Southern Cyprus and training the Cypriot military, eliminating the military embargo to Cyprus, and stepping up military presence in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea along with France. But Turkiye successfully stopped the July 15, 2016, coup despite the deaths of 300 Turkish citizens. Turkiye was successful in making the U.S. operations in Iraq and Syria useless despite the 15 billion dollars in weapons that the U.S. poured into the PKK/YPG and the YPD. Neither strategy succeeded in dividing Turkiye. The Eastern Mediterranean natural gas consortium, which included the U.S., Southern Cyprus, Israel, Greece and Egypt, became useless. During one incident an Italian ship was exploring for oil in the Mediterranean with the protection of a French war ship. It barely escaped Turkish attacks. After that event, the U.S. and its allies in Eastern Medi...

Bi-Polar Power in the 21 st Century by Behcet Kaya The following article is my personal opinion. In this 21st century, the bi-polar powers have not yet been settled on. It is clear that the U.S. is losing its hegemonic power and the world is struggling as to who will retain hegemony. Will it be a one country hegemony? Or will it be a true Bi-Polar Power? How do we see this? BRICS is a five-nation alliance with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa now meeting regularly. The most obvious thing is that they are forming a common currency against the world’s most reliable currency the U.S dollar. These nations want to trade and use their own currency instead of U.S. dollars. Since 1945 the U.S. dollar has been used exclusively to purchase petroleum and natural gas, medicine, and weapons. And now, because the dollar is losing its power, the U.S. government is printing money without any backing, pushing the U.S debt to over $35 trillion. Another point to consider is th...

                                                       Burning of the Kuran in Sweden My personal view of burning the Kuran in Sweden has two important points: First: Sweden allowed the burning of the Kuran because it claims that in Sweden there is freedom of expressing thoughts. Just the same as it is written in America’s First Amendment, which stipulates freedom of speech. Digging a little deeper, there are factions in Sweden who are against Sweden joining NATO. Therefore people who are behind this provocation are thinking that by burning the Kuran, Turkiye is not going to allow Sweden to join NATO. With this stipulation we can start blaming other nations such as Russia and Greece who are behind this charade as well. But, Russia’s Putin made an excellent example by going to Dagistan, a province of Russia, and accepting the Kuran. This is an indic...

Even now, after a seven-decade  long U.S./Turkish strategic alliance, the Pentagon still does not understand Turkish politics. For years the Pentagon has been wrong when dealing with Turkey. I remember in 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus, the U.S. media reported that, “U.S. Misread Turkish Intent” In 2003 when the second Iraq invasion took place, the Pentagon wanted to renew the Turkish railroad system in southeastern Turkiye, with the intent of the U.S. to invade Iraq from the north. In addition, the Pentagon sent its warships to several Turkish ports with the intent of sending its troops through Turkiye to Iraq. What happened? Another wrong assumption on the part of the Pentagon. The Turkish parliament refused to allow U.S. troops to pass through Turkish soil to reach Iraq. What was the U.S. response? In retaliation the U.S. Special Forces entered a Turkish unit domicile in Iraq as a friendly ally. They then turned their guns on the Turkish troops and put hoods overs the...

  New Erdogan Government   Even now, after a seven decades long U.S./Turkish strategic alliance, the Pentagon still does not understand Turkish politics. For years the Pentagon has been wrong when dealing with Turkey. I remember in 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus, the U.S. media reported that, “U.S. Misread Turkish Intent” In 2003 when the second Iraq invasion took place, the Pentagon wanted to renew the Turkish railroad system in southeastern Turkiye, with the intent of the U.S. to invade Iraq from the north. In addition, the Pentagon sent its warships to several Turkish ports with the intent of sending its troops through Turkiye to Iraq. What happened? Another wrong assumption on the part of the Pentagon. The Turkish parliament refused to allow U.S. troops to pass through Turkish soil to reach Iraq. What was the U.S. response? In retaliation the U.S. Special Forces entered a Turkish unit domicile in Iraq as a friendly ally. They then turned their guns on the Tu...